Choosing a Size

Bust Measurement Help:

Full Bust: What you would normally think of as just ‘bust’. It is the measurement around the largest part of your chest.

High Bust: This is the measurement around your body, directly under your underarms.

If you do not have a large bust and clothes normally fit you without having to size up for your chest then you can just use your normal bust (full bust) measurement when choosing a size.

If you have a large bust you might find you typically have to size up in clothing to get it to fit over your chest. When you make your own clothing, the better way to do this is to make the size the rest of your body needs (i.e. the size based off your High Bust) and then do an adjustment for your Full Bust. This means your shoulders and neckline will fit perfectly because they haven’t been made larger to account for a bigger bust. In this case you would do a FBA (Full Bust Adjustment) which is usually straightforward and will not change your neckline or armscye.

This blouse has quite a lot of ease. If your Full Bust is more than 2.5″ larger than your High Bust, then your High Bust should be used to get the best overall fit across your neckline and shoulders. You would then do a Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) to properly fit your chest.

Marking the Shoulder Pleats

Wondering about those markings on the shoulders? If you need any help understanding them or finding which ones are for your size it’s all explained in the video below:

Cutting out the pieces

If you’ve chosen a fabric with a lot of drape, it is likely to be somewhat slippery as well. To make sure it doesn’t move around on you while cutting out here are a few tips:

Use a rotary cutter instead of scissors. This will let your fabric stay flat against the cutting surface instead of being slightly pulled out of place by the bottom knife of the scissors.

Use pattern weights (or heavy things) instead of pins. I prefer to use pattern weights for slippery fabrics because, just like the scissors, pins will lift the fabric and possibly cause distortion. You might have pretty pattern weights but you can also use things from around the house like cups, candles, and books. Essentially anything with a decent weight to it, and won’t cause a mess if it tips over by accident! (So maybe don’t use lit candles)

Prep the Cuffs

Want some help on prepping the cuffs? This video will walk you through all of the steps:

Assembling the Shoulder Pleats

Time for the pleats! This video shows the full assembly of pleats from marking to pressing so if you’re only interested in a particular section of the video you can skip to the following time:

Marking the pleat lines: 0:00

Sewing the first pleat: 4:15

Sewing the centre pleat: 6:42

Pressing the pleats: 9:00

Attaching the Neckband

Time to attach the neckband! The video walks you through every step from how (and why) to quarter the neckline to pressing your final beautiful neckline.

Assembling the sleeve pleats

Ready to put the sleeve pleats in? The video guide shows how to mark the pleats, assembly, and ironing them to get a nice flowing pleat line on your sleeves.

Binding the Sleeve Vent

A full walk-through on how to cut and then bind the sleeve vent so it has a nice clean finish.

Attaching the Cuffs

Showing how to attach the cuff to the sleeve.

Attaching the Sleeves

The video shows how to align the sleeve to shoulder pleats and easing the sleeve in.

Marking the Buttonholes

A quick guide on how to mark the buttonholes and checking they are put on the correct side of the cuff.